Judgment Day 2003
Judgment Day 2003 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that took place on May 18, 2003, at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the fifth annual WWE Judgment Day event and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled for the event which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The first match from the SmackDown! brand featured WWE Champion Brock Lesnar's defeat of The Big Show in a Stretcher match to retain the title after Rey Mysterio interfered, attacking The Big Show. The second match from the Raw brand was between Kevin Nash and World Heavyweight Champion Triple H, where Nash won by disqualification. Three matches were featured on the undercard. The first match featured Women's Champion Jazz defeating Victoria, Jacqueline. and Trish Stratus in a Fatal Four-Way Match to retain the title. The next was a Battle Royal featuring Christian, Val Venis, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Test, Rob Van Dam, Kane, Goldust and Booker T for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Christian won the title, re-activating it after it had been unified with the World Heavyweight Championship in 2002. The final was between the team of Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri, and the team of Team Angle (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) in a ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Guerrero and Tajiri won the match and the titles. Background The event featured nine professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWE script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. All wrestlers were from either one of the WWE's brands – SmackDown or Raw – the two storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees. The main feud heading into Judgment Day on the SmackDown! brand was between Brock Lesnar and Big Show, with the two feuding over the WWE Championship. At Backlash, The Big Show defeated Rey Mysterio and then smashed him with a stretcher on the ringpost. The next Smackdown, Lesnar confronted Big Show about it while Big Show refused to face him. The next week, Big Show was set to team up with A-Train against Chris Benoit and Brock Lesnar, as Lesnar challenged Big Show to a Stretcher match at Judgment Day. The F-B-I then locked Lesnar in his room as Big Show defeated Benoit. Big Show tried to injure Benoit as he did to Mysterio but Lesnar saved him, only to get chokeslammed by Big Show. The next week, Big Show took Rey Mysterio during an interview to the ring as Lesnar ran out to save Rey, helping him hitting Show. The main feud on the Raw brand was between Triple H and Kevin Nash, with the two feuding over the World Heavyweight Championship. After Triple H pinned Nash at the six men tag at Backlash, him and Ric Flair challenged Rob Van Dam and Kane for the Tag titles. Nash interfered and then chased Triple H out of the arena, as Triple H flew with his car. The next week, both Nash and Triple H were guests of the Highlight Reel, Chris Jericho's talk show. Both brawled all over the arena. The next week, Nash fought against Jericho, and won after Shawn Michaels pervented Triple H and Ric Flair from interfering. Nash then hit Triple H with the Jacknife Powerbomb. The secondary feud on the SmackDown! brand was between Mr. America (Hulk Hogan) and Roddy Piper. After Hogan won against Vince McMahon at WrestleMania XIX, McMahon was frustrated with him and wanted Hulkamania to die, and forced him to sit out the rest of his contract. For weeks after that, mysterious Mr. America promos airing for weeks during SmackDown! shows. On May 1, Mr. America debuted on SmackDown! on a Piper's Pit segment. McMahon appeared and claimed that Mr. America was Hulk Hogan in disguise; Mr. America shot back by saying, "I am not Hulk Hogan, brother!" (lampooning Hogan's use of "brother" in his promos). McMahon couldn't fire Mr. America due to his contract with Stephanie McMahon. The next week, Vince said that he would prove that Mr. America is Hulk Hogan in order to fire him. He interviewed Hogan live via satellite from his home, but then was informed that Mr. America was in the building. Vince tried to rip the mask off Mr. America's face but Mr. America laid him out. The next week, Piper challenged Mr. America to a match at Judgment Day, but then Piper attacked Mr. America and his fan. Piper then pulled the prosthetic leg off the fan, who was revealed as Zach Gowen. In October at No Mercy, Triple H defeated Kane to win the Intercontinental Championship while retaining the World Heavyweight Championship thus unifying the two titles. As a result, the Intercontinental Championship was deactivated. On May 9, Raw Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin reactivated the Intercontinental Championship and announced a battle royal for the vacated title at Judgment Day. It was also announced that any former Intercontinental Champion will be eligible to enter the battle royal. The winner of the battle royal will be announced as the new Intercontinental Champion. Another feud on the SmackDown! brand was between Divas Torrie Wilson and Sable. On April 3, Torrie hosted a Playboy Coming Out Party to celebrate with the fans for her posing of Playboy Magazine but she was interrupted when Sable (who had not been seen in the WWE since May 1999) made her return and pointed out that she was the first diva to pose for Playboy and told Torrie that they're isn't enough room on SmackDown! for two Playboy Divas. She also said that she thinks she and Torrie would be the "best of friends" and then gave her a kiss on the lips. Two weeks later, Sable served as special referee for Torrie's match against Nidia and helped her win. Sable even hosted a Sable Invitational bikini contest with Torrie, Nidia and Dawn Marie which ended with Nidia and Dawn attacking Torrie after Sable declared them co-winners and stated that Torrie was a loser. Last month at Backlash, Sable stirred up trouble between Torrie and Stacy Keibler leading to a backstage brawl between them. On May 1, Nidia and Dawn defeated Torrie and Sable after Sable refused to tag into the match. The following week, Torrie defeated Dawn in singles action with Sable at ringside. After the match, Sable challenged Torrie to a bikini contest at Judgment Day. Torrie accepted the challenge by unzipping her top and pulling it down revealing a pink bra. Results ; ; *Sunday Night Heat: The Hurricane defeated Steven Richards (2:58) *John Cena and The F.B.I. (Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli) (with Nunzio) defeated Rhyno, Spanky and Chris Benoit in a Six-Man Tag Team match (3:58) *La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and René Duprée) defeated Test and Scott Steiner (w/ Stacy Keibler) (6:19) *Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri defeated Team Angle (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) © in a Tag team ladder match to win the WWE Tag Team Championship 14:18 *Christian won a Battle Royal also involving: Val Venis, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Test, Rob Van Dam, Kane, Goldust and Booker T in a Battle royal for the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship (11:38) *Torrie Wilson defeated Sable in a Bikini contest (n/a) *Mr. America (w/ Zach Gowen) defeated Roddy Piper (w/ Sean O'Haire) (4:58) *Kevin Nash defeated Triple H © by disqualification in a World Heavyweight Championship Match (7:25) *Jazz © (w/ Theodore Long) defeated Victoria (w/ Steven Richards), Jacqueline and Trish Stratus in a Fatal Four-Way Match to retain the WWE Women's Championship (4:48) *Brock Lesnar © defeated The Big Show in a Stretcher match for the WWE Championship (15:27) Battle Royal Other on-screen talent See also *List of WWE pay-per-view events *WWE Event History *Judgment Day *Event gallery DVD release * Judgment Day 2003 on DVD External links * Judgment Day 2003 Official site * Judgment Day 2003 at CAGEMATCH.net * Judgment Day 2003 at Online World of Wrestling * Judgment Day 2003 on WWE Network Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:Judgment Day Category:2003 pay-per-view events